The day before I was due to take my HighPerformance Aeroplane examination Ihad an email from the CAA to say I didn’t

need to do so. The aircraft I had bought – apiston-engined Piper PA-46 Malibu Mirage –had been removed from the list of those forwhich an HPA was required.

This was a fine kettle of fish. I’d justundergone a 17-week correspondence course,four intermediate exams and a two-daycrammer at a cost of £600 for an exam that Ididn’t know I needed to take when I boughtthe plane, and which I didn’t believe wasbased on very sound thinking anyway. Ithadn’t been at all easy – I’m not as young as Iused to be, and I’ve got a life to lead and abusiness to run – but I’d managed to fit it in.And now, the CAA had decided it was all fornothing.

What did I do? Well, I went ahead with theexam anyway. And I passed. So now, if I everwant an aircraft on the High Performance list,I’m already tooled up. And while I’m sure I’m abetter pilot for some of my new-foundknowledge, I’m still not a fan of the HPA. Acomprehensive type rating should be enoughto do the job the HPA rating sets out to do,without filling the pilot’s head with reams ofinformation about supersonic flight or howmany oxygen masks you need on an A320 at30,000 feet.

The HPA rating is the JAA’s answer to theproblems that arise when relativelysophisticated and slippery aircraft fall into thehands of pilots who don’t fully understandthem, or the environment in which theyoperate. There have been a number ofaccidents, particularly in the United States,where pilots have gone straight from a PA-28into a pressurised aircraft and climbed to25,000 feet only to find that their plane goes

all white and enters a high-speed dive, whichends with them pulling the wings off whenthey pop out of low cloud.

The HPA syllabus is entirely theoretical, andthe books are several inches thick. It covers alot of CPL and ATPL ground – although havingan HPA counts for nothing in the commercialexams or the IR – including electrical systems,pressurisation, fuel systems, engineperformance and management, oxygenequipment, human physiology, the highaltitude environment, jetstreams, CAT, standingwaves, thunderstorms, icing, principles ofradar, transonic aerodynamics, Mach numbersand shockwaves, buffet margin, aerodynamicceiling and so on.

Now some of that is very interesting andsome of it is useful, and some of it is neitherinteresting nor useful to the pilot of aturbocharged piston-engined Malibu. Theelectrical stuff I found easy – after all, mycompany Avialec provides specialised electricalconnectors to the aerospace industry, includingthe Airbus A380, the A350 and the Boeing787 – and the most useful material concernedengine management and the high-altitudeenvironment. But as I say, I would rather have seen this incorporated into a proper type rating rather than having a separatequalification.

I wasn’t exactly coming to high performanceaircraft cold. I’m sure many people shareaviation experiences like mine – early attemptsat flight in a Miles Magister at Elstree andDunsfold curtailed by a lack of cash, thenlater, as things improved, family commitmentsand business life coming first. I trained as anaerospace engineer but found sales to be moreinteresting, and more lucrative. I set up Avialecat Petersfield, Hampshire in 1983. During ahectic decade of establishing and building the

company I would always find time to look outof the window at a passing aircraft, and by1996 I was in a position to afford the time tolearn to fly. I went to Goodwood Flying Cluband learned on the PA-38, then added the IMCand night ratings before taking a twin rating onan Aztec at Bournemouth.

I was in a PA-28 syndicate for a while atGoodwood before I bought a TB20 direct fromSocata – they used to provide them to Frenchflying clubs, then take them back and refurbishthem to as-new condition, and I was able tochoose the colour scheme, the leather interiorand the kit while still getting a very good deal.

16 General Aviation February 2006

A new High Performance Aeroplane qualification hasbeen introduced for non-ATPLs who want to fly certainsophisticated aircraft. Barrie Prescott, one of the first topass, describes his experiences

HPA rating :the wrong solution?HPA rating :the wrong solution?

HPA revised 17/1/06 6:08 pm Page 16

A little while later I bought a Hawker Hunterwith seven fellow syndicate members, whilealso taking a rotary licence and buying a halfshare in a JetRanger. I’ve got about 1,000hours now, including some solo time in theHunter.

I sold the TB20 to a chap in Holland – Iwanted to keep the registration, G-EGHR,because I’m based at Goodwood and EGHR isits ICAO code, but for some reason that I can’tfathom the CAA won’t allow it, so it’s goneforever. I had always been fond of the PA-46,but I never thought I’d own one – then I sawDerrick Ings’ advert for a PA-46 Malibu Miragebased at Fairoaks and thought it wouldn’t hurtjust to have a look. It was just a beautifulaircraft and I took to it right away, and verysoon I’d done a deal with the owner, RexThorn.

(This aircraft, G-VRST, was featured in theApril 2004 issue of General Aviation – ed.)

The TB20 is a complex single, and I lookedon the Malibu as a reasonably progressiveupgrade. As well as the additional complexitieslike pressurisation, it had more seats and anairstairs door, and in fact G-VRST only had400 hours total time. It wasn’t until after I’dsigned for the aircraft that the problems begancoming to light.

I thought that all I’d have to do was get atype rating to fly it so I spoke to an outfit at

Bournemouth – but the first question theyasked was, have you got your HPA rating?That was the first I’d heard of it. Derrick Ingsdidn’t know about it, andneither did Rex Thorn – therehad been some talk ofspecial training for highperformance aircraft, butnobody knew what washappening, and certainlynobody knew they’d include the piston Malibu.But the list of affected aircraft had come out,and along with all the multi-enginedturboprops they’d included the PC-12, the PC-9, the PC-7 Mk II, the Extra 400 – and thePA-46. No differentiation between the turbine-powered PA-46 and the piston engined version– if it was a PA-46, you had to do the HPA.

It’s a pity that pilots are often treated forlegislative purposes as idiots who will sticktheir hands in a fire unless prevented fromdoing so by law. It’s interesting to note thatwhile all eight of us in the Hunter syndicatehave gone solo in the aircraft, none of us fliesit without a well-qualified safety pilot. That’sbecause we’re grown-ups who are capable ofmaking sensible decisions, and the Hunter is afast and dangerous aircraft. In the case ofhigh-performance aircraft, the type ratingshould incorporate whatever is required, andthe complexity and capability of the aircraft

should be reflected in the degree of difficulty ofthe type rating.

I have to say I was not happy. Had I knownabout the HPA, I wouldhave thought twice aboutbuying the aircraft. It lookedan amazingly dauntingsyllabus for a chap ofmature years, and I didn’twant to go back to school. I

couldn’t even take three weeks off and worksolidly at it – I had to do the full 17-weekcourse. But I’d signed for the aircraft, andhowever much I objected to it I had no choice– either I did the HPA, or I’d bought anexpensive garden ornament.

So I became one of three guinea pigs takingthe first HPA courses. On the two-daycrammer at the end of the 17 weeks, I foundthe other two were a PC-12 pilot and a retiredATPL who wanted to fly a Navajo. During the17 weeks I had made time during the workingday, in the evenings and at weekends to dealwith the workload, and I don’t think Avialecsuffered. The most frustrating thing was thefact that I wholeheartedly objected to what Iwas being forced to do, and even now that I’vepassed the exam I’m still only slightly lessnegative about it.

I was aware that while I was doing thework, Derrick Ings had petitioned the CAA tohave the piston-engined version of the PA-46removed from the HPA requirement. Hereasoned that they had included the turbo-prop PA-46 Meridian in the high performancelist, and the PA-46 Malibu Mirage, a turbo-charged piston-engined aircraft, had simplybeen caught up in the rulemaking. Sureenough, the CAA agreed with him andamended the list just in time for me to haveavoided taking the rating, had I so wished –but having done the work, I thought I might aswell take the exam. At least the pressure wasoff. If I’d failed, nothing would be lost.

But of course I didn’t – and neither did mytwo fellow examinees. But we all agreed thatthe type rating is the place for what we werebeing asked to learn. Engine management wasparticularly important. You can’t suddenly dropfrom 15,000 feet to sea level to conform to anATC request without shock-cooling your engine.Weight and balance is vital, as are the take-offgraphs, the landing graphs – but all that shouldbe in the type rating. The notion that the moreyou know the better off you are only works upto a point. When you start filling pilots’ headswith extraneous information that will never bemore than arcana, you’re not making them anysafer. It’s a fact that I now know what to do incase of an engine fire, I know what to do incase of depressurisation or icing, but I shouldhave learned that in the type rating.

I did the type rating soon after I got theHPA, and while I wouldn’t say I whistledthrough it, it didn’t pose any particularproblems for me. I probably felt more confidentgoing into it because I had the HPA, and ofcourse it was far more interesting andpractical. I’m now fully licensed to fly myMalibu and I have an aircraft I can use forbusiness, getting around our customers allover Europe. I flew to Holland to see Fokkerjust after I got the type rating, but if course I’maware that you can’t make full use of a planelike the Malibu unless you have an InstrumentRating. I’m following with interest the progressof IAOPA’s proposals to reduce the theoryrequirements for the JAA IR, because I simplydon’t have the time to take the IR in its currentform. Like the HPA, it does not concentrate onthe matter in hand, and we all suffer for it. ■

General Aviation February 2006 17

‘Either I did the HPA orI’d bought an expensivegarden ornament’

Top left: HPA-rated Barrie Prescott with hisnew PA-46 Piper Malibu Mirage Left: G-VRST as she was featured in GAmagazine in April 2004 Below: Malibu Meridian turboprop still requiresan HPA rating Above: Barrie shows off his Hawker Hunter

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